J.M.  Maclnnis 


The  Historical  Order 
of  the 
Books  of  the  Old  Testament 


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REV.  J.  M.  MacINNIS.  A.  M.  LITT. 

PASTOR    FIRST,  PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.I 
MONTROSE,    PA. 


THE    INDEPENDENT    REPUBLICAN    PRINT, 
MONTROSE,    PA. 


The  Historical    Order   of    the   Books  of  the 
Old    Testament. 

The  purpose  of  the  following  outline  is  three- 
fold-- 

First— To  enable  the  scholar,  by  the  law  of  As- 
sociation, to  remember  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 

Skoo^d — To  cultivate  an  historical  sense  and  in- 
terest in  the  study  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Third — And  most  important  of  all,  to  set  the 
messages  of  these  books  in  their  zfrz/e  historical  setting 
in  order  that  they  may  be  more  easily  understood  and 
more  intelligently  appreciated. 


In  order  to  fully  understand  and  appreciate  the 
Old  Testament  it  is  necessary  to  constantly  remember 
that  it  is  the  history  of  a  people  chosen,  called,  and 
prepared  of  God  for  a  special  purpose,  and  that 
pwvpo^e  w lis  world-wide  in  its  interests.  On  the  one 
hand  the  people  w^ere  under  the  government  of  God, 
while  on  the  other  hand  they  were  in  the  world  and 
in  touch  with  the  great  woi'ld  powers. 

The  message  of  the  Old  Testament  can  be  proper- 
ly understood  only  when  studied  in  the  light  of  this 
twofold  relation. 


History  Of  Israel. 

I.  The  first  general  Period  in  the  history  of  Is- 
rael we  will  call :  The  Origin  and  Fre'paration  of 
the  People  Outside  the  Promised  Land.  The  story 
of  this  part  of  their  life  is  told  in  Genesis,  Exodus, 
Leviticus,  Numbers  and  Deuteronomy. 

//.     TTte  people  in  the  promised  land — 
1 — The  Theocracy. 

Joshua,  Judges  and  Ruth. 

2 — The  Monarchy. 

1  &  2  Sam.,  l'&  2  Kings,  1  &  2  Chron. 
During  the  first  part  of  the  monarchy  this  King- 
dom was  united  under  one  King  who  had  his  residence 
ai:  Jerusalem,  1051—931  B.  C. 


At  the  death  of  Solomon  the  ten  northern  tribes 
revolted  against  the  house  of  David  and  crowned  Jer- 
oboam King  and  finally  established  their  capital  at 
Samaria. 

III.     The  people  under  foreign  rule — 

Ezra,  Nehemiah  and  Esther. 
About  587  B.   C,  to  the  close  of  the  Old 
Testament  history. 


This  gives  us  five  historical  books  for  the  first  pe- 
riod, three  double  books  for  the  second,  and  three  for 
the  third  period. 

During  the  development  of  this  history  the  peo- 
ple passed  through  several  crises  in  which  they  were 
threatened  with  utter  destruction.  During  these  crit- 
ical times  God  raised  up  prox)hets  who  warned  and  in- 
structed the  people.  They  were  the  great  preachers 
of  righteousness  in  their  day,  and  their  messages  were 
born  of  the  supreme  need  of  the  hour.  This  was  the 
origin  of  what  are  known  as  the  Prophetical  books  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  in  order  to  be  intelligently 
studied  these  books  must  be  studied  in  the  light  of 
the  crises  that  gave  them  birth. 

The  first  group  of  writing  prophets  (the  prophets 
whose  message  is  preserved  in  the  Old  Testament) 
Avere  raised  up  to  save  Israel  and  Judahfrom  destruc- 
tion by  Assyria. 


World   Powers. 

Here  we  will  give  the  order  of  the  predominance 
of  the  great  world  empires  with  which  Israel  came  in- 
to contact  and  are  mentioned  in  Old  Testament  histo- 
ry and  prophecy. 

Abraham  was  called  from  "Ur  of  the  Chaldees," 
which  was  on  the  Western  bank  of  the  Euphrates  and 
a  part  of  old  Babylonia. 

This  is  the  nation  from  which  the  chosen  people 
were  called  out,  and  it  was  a  strong,  flourishing  em- 
I)ire  as  early  as  5000  B.  C. 


Khammurabi,  whose  code  of  laws  was  discovered 
a  few  years  ago  and  is  one  of  the  oldest  codes  in  ex- 
istence, was  one  of  the  greatest  Kings  of  this  nation. 
He  reigned  about  200  years  before  Abraham  entered 
Canaan.     About  2297-2254  B.  C. 

The  next  nation  with  which  Israel  came  into  con- 
tact was  Egypt,  and  it  played  a  most  important  part 
in  the  development  of  the  national  life. 

From  about  950  to  606  B.  C,  Assyria  was  the 
dominant  world  power.  This  empire  flourished  in  the 
Valley  of  the  Tigris  and  Nineveh  was  one  of  its  capi- 
tal cities. 

During  this  time  Israel  also  came  into  contact 
with  Syria  which  had  its  capital  at  Damascus.  Ben- 
hadad  III  was  one  of  the  best  known  kings  of  Syria. 

Ill  about  606  B.  C.  Babylonia  under  the  guidance 
of  Nabopolasser  gained  the  ascendancy  and  flourish- 
ed until  536  B.  C  ,  wlien  it  was  overthrown  by  Cyrus, 
King  of  Ansan,  who  founded  the  Medo-Persian  em- 
l^ire.  This  great  world  power  was  the  leading  power 
until  about  880  B.  C,  at  which  time  it  was  overthrown 
by  Macedonia,  which  in  its  turn  gave  way  to  the  iron 
power  of  Rome. 

By  this  outline  you  will  notice  that  the  Assyrian 
Period  in  world  ])ower  corresponds  with  the  last  part 
of  the  second  half  of  the  II  Period  in  the  history  of 
Israel,  which  is  designated  as  "^Ae  time  of  the  divid- 
ed kingdom.''^ 


First  Group  Of  Prophets. 

It  was  during  this  time,  then,  that  the  first  group 
of  writing  prophets  flourished. 

There  are  seven  in  this  group,  three  belonging  to 
the  Northern  kingdom,  three  to  the  Southern  king- 
dom and  one  to  both. 

Hosea,  Amos  and  Jonah  belonged  to  the  Northern 
kingdom;  Joel,  (Jbadiah  and  Isaiah  belonged  to  the 
Kingdom  of  Judah,  while  Micah  had  a  message  for 
the  north  and  the  south.  The  activity  of  these  pro- 
phets is  connected  with  the  reigns  of  Tiglathpileser 
III,  Shalmanesser  IV,  Sargon,  and  Sennacherib  of  As- 


Syria;  Benliaclacl  TIT,  and  R-  zin  of  Syrii;  Jeroboam  II, 
Zeohariah,  Shallura,  Menahem,  Pekahiah,  Pekah, 
and  Hoshea,  of  Israel;  and  Araaziah.  Uzziah,  Jotham, 
Aliaz,  and  Hezekiali,  of  Judah. 

The  work  of  tlie  northern  men  failnd  to  bring  the 
nation  to  repentance,  and  it  was  consequently  destroy- 
ed by  Sargon  about  721  B.  C. 

The  work  of  the  southern  prophets  was  crowned 
with  great  success  and  the  nation  was  saved  under 
Hezekiah,  and  continui^d  for  about  185  years. 


Second  Group  Of  Prophets. 

The  next  group  of  propht-ts  belonged  to  the  Baby- 
lonian Peiiod.  and  were  raised  up  to  save  Jerusalem 
from  destruction  by  Babylonia  (new  Babylonia). 

This  group  was  com[)osed  of  Naliurn,  Habakkuk, 
Zephaniah  and  Jeremiah,  atid  were  contemporaneous 
with  Josiah,  Jehoikim,  Jehoiacliin  and  Zedekiah, 
Kings  of  J  udah;^'a])0])ola.'-ser  of  Assyria;  and  Ne- 
buchadrezzar of  New  Babylonia — about' G27-586  B.  C. 

JSotwithstanding  the  clearness,  earnestness  and 
self-sacrifice  wirh  which  these  preachers  of  righteous 
ness  set  forth  the  issues  of  this  crisis  in  the  nation's 
life,  Judah  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  tliem,  and  consequent- 
ly was  overcome  and  led  into  captivity  by  the  King 
of  New  Babylonia  about  087  B.  C. 

But  God  did  not  forsake  the  people.  Two  of  the 
most  intejesting  of  all  the  Hebrew  prophets  were  sent 
to  them  during  the  Babylonian  captivity— Ezekiel  and 
Daniel. 

This  is  known  as  the  Babvlonian  Period  and  was 
about  70  years  long.     606-536  B.  C. 


Third  Group  Of  Prophets. 

The  next  group  of  pi'0[)hets  belonged  to  the  Per- 
sian or  Restoration  Perioii.  Cyrus,  thefounder  of  the 
Medo- Persian  empire  overthrew  the  new  Babylonian 
empire  about  538  B.  C,  and  immediately  issued  an 
edict  allowing  a  considerable  number  of  the  Jews  to 
return  to  their  own  land,  and  to  rebuild  the  temple 
which  had  been  destroyed  by  Nebuchadnezzar. 


This  work  of  restoration  was  carried  on  under  the 
leadership  of  Zernbbabel,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  and 
the  people  were  encouraged  by  Haggai,  Zechariah  and 
Malachi. 


Poetical  Books. 

Besides  these  historical  and  prophetical  books, 
there  are  poetical  books.  These  are  six  in  number, 
and  are  expressive  of  the  inner  religious  life  of  the 
nation. 

They  can  be  conveniently  grouped  into  two 
groups.  We  have  first  Didactic,  or  teaching  Poetry 
— Proverbs,  Job,  and  Ecclesiastes.  In  the  second 
group  we  have  Lyric,  or  emotional  poetry — Psalms, 
Song  of  Songs,  and  Lamentations. 

The  key  to  all  this  History,  Prophecy  and  Poetry 
is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  God  was  endeavoring 
to  teach  the  chosen  people,  and  demonstrate  through 
them,  the  fundamental  and  underlying  principle  of 
the  universe — 

Obedience  to  God  is  life: 
Disobedience  to  God  is  death. 


Outline  Of  Old  Testament. 

In  the  following  chart  the  books  are  approxi- 
mately placed.  Naturally  some  of  them  overlap,  and 
regarding  the  exact  date  of  some  others  there  is  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion. 

But  having  carefully  considered  the  facts  in  the 
case  I  feel  that  the  chart  is  approximately  correct. 

The  distinction  of  **major"  and  "minor"  prophets 
is  not  noticed  in  this  outline,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  it  is  superficial  and  arbitrary  and  has  no  real  ba- 
sis in  fact. 

/.     The  call  and  preparation  of  the  nation. 

1— History,  Gen.,  Ex.,  Lev.,  Num.,  Deut. 
2— Poetry,  Job. 


//.     Til e  people  in  til  e  promised  land. 
l_The  Theocracy. 

{a)  History.     Joshua,  Judges  and  Ruth. 
2 — Monarchy. 

(a)  Undivided 

(1)  Hi«5tory— 1    Snni.,   2  Sam.,    I   Kings 

1-11;  and  I  Chron. 

(2)  Poetry— Psalms  1-90;  Proverbs,  Ecc, 

Song  of  Songs. 
{h)  The  monarchy  divided. 
931-586  B.  C. 

(1)  History.     1  Kings  12-22;  2  Kings;  2 

Chron. 

(2)  Prophets,   Assyrinn  Period,    Hosea, 

Amos,  and  Jonah  in  Northern 
kingdom;  Joel,  Obadiah  and  Isa- 
iah in  Southern  kingdom;  and 
Micah  in  North  and  South. 
Babylonian  Period,  Nahum,  Habak- 
kuk,  Zephaniah,  and  Jeremiah. 

(3)  Poetry,  most  of  the  later  Psalms  and 

Lamentations. 
///.     The  people  under  foreign  rule. 
1 — The  captivity. 

(a)  History. 

The  most  of  the  history  is  to  be  found  in  the 
writings  of  the  two  prophets  of  this  period,  Ezekiel 
and  Daniel. 

(b)  Poetry,  some  of  the  later  Psalms  un- 

doubtedly belong  to  this  period. 
2 — The  Restoration. 

(a)  History — Ezra;  Nehemiah;  Esther. 

{b)  Prophets — Haggai;   Zechariah;  Mai- 
achi. 

(c)  Poetry — some  of  the  later  Psalms. 


BS1187.M15 

The  historical  order  of  the  books  of  the 

.M!','.",':!^°".T!:'^°'?9'cal  Seminary-Speer  Library 


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